Invertible sheeting clip



Sept. 22; 1970 B; L. JELLEY 3,529,350

INVERTIBLE SHEETING CLIP Filed Dec. 26, 1968 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 FIG. 1'

B. L. JELLEY INVERTIBLE SHEETING CLIP Sept. 22, 1970 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed Dec. 26, 1968 United States Patent Office 3,529,860 Patented Sept. 22, 1970 U.S. Cl. 287-18936 5 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A two-piece clip for removably attaching sheeting to a scaffold. One component of the clip is U-shaped for placement laterally on a scaffold member, and includes inner and outer walls with a connecting sidewall. The inner wall is formed with an open-sided recess to receive another scaffold member extending laterally from the first member and the open side of the recess is closed by a swingable keeper bar. The second clip component is a plate formed with a keyhole slot to receive a headed stud on the outer wall of the first component, so that sheeting may be releasably clamped between the two components of the clip.

This invention relates to the provision of temporary cover and protection of building operations.

Construction in the open in much of the North American Continent is restricted due to the long cold winter. For at least five months out of the year protection must be provided. This protection usually takes formof plastic sheeting or light canvas type laminated foil attached to scaffolding, tubular type or wooden type, by a frame of two inch by four inch timber. The temporary nature of this type of structure is crucial owing to the frequency of high winds, blowing snow and chinook conditions. It is obvious that this temporary type of protection will not iwithstand blizzard conditions. Therefore speed of assembly and disassembly is the key to the most economic use of these structures. Further, in winter conditions men must be dressed in heavy and bulky clothes and wear heavy gloves or mittens. This seriously reduces their ability to work at erecting the structures necessary. Even more important, their effectiveness in rapidly disassembling is reduced to destroying, at least the sheeting, if not the structure of two by fours and the scaffolding in the process.

Temporary protection is especially important in masonry operations because a temperature above 26 degrees Fahrenheit must be maintained. Since the mean temperature from November to March is 12 degrees Fahrenheit (for Alberta) some temporary type of structure which will hold heat is necessary. Normally, about two days work must be enclosed and heated, then in completion another two days work set off. Here again the wooden structures fail due to the difficulty in removing the sheeting from the scaffolding. And, of course, this type of structure is also subject to the same blizzard conditions in the same way.

Both of these problems can be solved by the clip which I have designed. Using a series of these clips on either wooden or tubular scaffolding, two heavy clothed men can encase an area 80 feet by 20 feet in one hour and re move the plastic sheeting without damage in about fifteen minutes. Since it takes about one hour to heat such a structure, masons can set up and be at work in two hours and in case of blizzard or storm warnings the whole structure of sheeting can be down in minutes ready for use when the storm subsides.

Previous inventions relating to temporary protection by plastic sheeting are aimed at lasting weeks or months but my invention relates to hours or days duration, the em; phasis being on speed and ease of assembly and disassembly in harsh winter conditions and hence fulfills a different area of need than that supplied by US. Pat. No. 3,058,- 518 (relates to a screw held assembly which could not be put in position rapidly or under the same conditions as the inevitible (lateral slot) sheeting clip).

To facilitate describing the invertible (lateral slot) sheeting clip (herein after referred to as the clip") and the most effective way of putting same into operations three drawings have been prepared and labelled pursuant to rule 29 of the patent rules under the Patent Act as follows:

FIG. 1 shows a front view of the male and female members of the clip.

FIG. 2 shows the clip as it is installed over the left hand corner of a standard tubular scaffold. To install on the right hand corner the clip is simply inverted.

FIG. 3 shows the clip in the same position nailed to a two inch timber scaffold.

The design illustrated is used as follows: the male member is placed over a corner of the tubular scaffolding as in FIG. 2 and rests on the point of contact, numeral 3 (by simple inversion the clip can be placed over the opposite corner) or is affixed to the wooden scaffolding using nails as in FIG. 3. The side of the male member in FIG. 1 which has its centre punched out in the form of a rectangular slot (hereinafter referred to as side one) has a rotating locking bar (numeral 7) attached to one of its extremities by a rivet (numeral 5). On the opposite extremity of the rotating locking bar is a cylindrical metal button (numeral -8) corresponding in size to the hole in the second extremity of side one as shown in FIG. 1, numeral 8. The rotating locking bar is made of spring steel. Therefore, to insert the button (numeral 8) into the hole in the second extremity of side one, the rotating locking bar is simply bent back and then rotated so as to line up the button and the hole. When released the rotating locking bar will spring into place as shown in FIG. 1 and the male member will be securely fixed to the tubular scaffolding. To remove the male member from the scaffolding, the rotating locking bar is bent back once again, removing the button (numeral 8) from the hole and then rotated. The male member is then simply pulled off the tubular scaffolding. If wooden scaffolding is used the clip is installed by driving nails through the nail holes (numeral 4) so as to securely fix the clip in place. Either operation can be easily and quickly carried out by men bulkily clothed and heavily gloved.

Next, the plastic sheeting is draped over the side of the clip opposite to the side previously referred to as side one. The side consists of two corrugated sponge rubber pads (numeral 9) on the outside edges and two metal rivets with button heads (numeral 6) one above the other in the centre of the side. The corrugated sponge rubber pads (numeral 9) grip the sheeting and when the female member is affixed the sponge rubber pads compress to firmly secure the sheeting to the clip (this padding also reduces the incidence of tearing in the sheeting). The female member consists of a metal plate the outer edges of which are recessed at a slight angle (numeral 1) to further reduce the incidence of tearing of the sheeting. The remaining centre portion (numeral 2) which may be padded with sponge rubber to emphasize the security of the grip and further reduce tearing, has two cam slots punched in it. The bottom portion of the cam slot (numeral 11) has an area sufficient to allow the button heads of the male member (numeral 6) to easily pass through. When numeral 6 has been placed through numeral 11 the female member is pulled down forcing the button heads into the countersunk area (numeral 10) of the lateral slot where it is in effect locked in place. The combination of the scaffolding clip locking mechanism (numerals 3, 5, 7, and 8, or numeral 4 in the case of wooden scaffolding) and the clip-sheeting locking mechanism (numerals 2, 9, 6, 10 and 11) securely fix the sheeting to the scaffolding in approximately four simple steps.

I claim:

1. A two-piece clip for attaching sheeting to a scaffold, said clip comprising a scaffold mounting component and a cooperating sheeting retaining component, said mounting component being U-shaped with an open side for placement laterally around a scaffold member and including inner and outer walls and a connecting side wall, said mounting component also including means for holding the same in position on a scaffold member, and at least one stud projecting outwardly from the outer side wall and provided with an enlarged head, said retaining component comprising a plate juxtaposed to said outer wall and provided with a keyhole slot removably receiving said stud therein, whereby sheeting may be releasably clamped between said outer wall and said plate.

2. The device as defined in claim 1 wherein said holding means of the mounting component are constituted by an open-sided recess provided in said inner wall for receiving a scaffold member extending laterally from the first mentioned member, a swingable keeper bar pivoted to said inner wall for closing the open side of said recess, and means for releasably locking said keeper bar in its closed position.

3. The device as defined in claim 1 together with a pair of resilient pads provided on said outer wall at opposite sides of said stud in juxtaposition to opposite side edge portions of said plate.

4. The device as defined in claim 3 wherein the opposite side edge portions of said plate are offset angularly outwardly from a center portion of the plate which is provided with said keyhole slot.

5. The device as defined in claim 1 wherein said holding means of the mounting component are constituted by at least one nail-receiving aperture provided in said connecting side wall.

References Cited REINALDO P. MACHADO, Primary Examiner W. L. SHEDD, Assistant Examiner US. Cl. X.R. 

